Local Councils

Local councils and local services

Local Government cuts: They say the crisis is over...

“There is likely to be at least a 10 per cent budget squeeze [in local government] from next year, possibly more if the Conservatives win the next general election”, reports the Financial Times (11 November). Since much that local councils do is a matter of legal obligations, with their costs largely fixed beyond each council’s control, ten per cent is a huge squeeze. It comes from probable cuts by the New Labour government in the local government “settlement” for April 2010 (tax money redistributed from central government to local government); from reductions in local income, from fees and...

Local Government: beware the Newcastle model

The first I had heard of the so called “Newcastle model” was at Unison conference in June this year. The basic idea is for local government workers (or their unions) to be enlisted in a process of “modernising” local government services. This may involve cuts (or cost savings), but those cuts would be one-off “reforms”. This process should help stop contracting-out/privatisation. Unison’s promotion of this strategy is extremely worrying. At conference there was a long presentation from various people in the Newcastle branch, a presentation which preceded a motion but “talked out” any debate...

Leeds: a first battle of "the new austerity"

Leeds City Council Street Scene workers have been on all-out indefinite strike since 7 September. These workers include street cleaners, depot staff, and household refuse collectors, all of whom are facing wage cuts of up to £6000 a year. Refuse collectors will be hit particularly hard if the council get its way, with wages falling to a little over £12000 a year for some. Many of these workers doing a hard, hazardous, and vital job risk losing their homes as they lose up a third of their wages. The councillors' response to the almost entirely solid walk-out by GMB and Unison members is to do...

Is Ryanair the Tory model for councils?

Barnet trade unionists got a nasty shock on the morning of Friday 28 August, finding our borough was front page news in the Guardian newspaper: “Tories adopt budget airline service model — London borough’s radical no-frills approach could drive Cameron policy”. The reason it was a shock was because we felt we were successfully heading off the Tory administration’s mass privatisation plan, “Future Shape”. Future Shape was floated initially as a grandiose scheme that would see the council reduced to a “strategic hub”, while the vast bulk of services would be outsourced as part of a pan-public...

Poplar Council: Guilty and proud of it!

Poplar councillor rebels Edgar, Minnie and George Lansbury (Edgar was George's son, and married to Minnie, née Glassman) Janine Booth’s recently published book Guilty and Proud Of It! is a story about how a group of socialist Labour councillors in Poplar, East London, refused to bow to the “norms” of capitalist economics and politics, and stood up for the working-class people who voted them in. They went to prison rather than accepting inequitable taxes. Newly-enfranchised working-class voters elected Labour to run the Council in 1919. For the next two years, it improved life for Poplar...

A fight for jobs and principle

Friday 12 June saw hundreds of English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) students, staff and supporters march in East London in protest at major cuts to ESOL announced at Tower Hamlets College. The (overwhelmingly female) student protesters led chants on megaphones, carried placards with their own powerful slogans, and spoke eloquently and emphatically to the national press about what ESOL means to them. Key messages were the need for English to allow them to support their children’s learning, so they can be a part of their communities and so they can work. These women have developed not...

Barnet: a battle lost but who’s winning the war?

Despite a lively campaign against the plans, Barnet’s Conservative Cabinet voted on 8 June to axe the borough’s sheltered housing wardens. They will be replaced with ‘floating support’ — a much reduced number of wardens operating out of a handful of local ‘hubs’. In theory the floating supporters will also serve elderly residents not in sheltered housing schemes. Since the budget for all of this has been cut from £1.4 million to £950,000 it’s clear that services to elderly people in the borough have been reduced. Cuts like these are happening around the country; it’s a shame that there has...

Fight the cuts!

A survey of 129 council leaders by the Local Government Association shows that half the councils in England have axed jobs in the last few months and seven in ten anticipate further redundancies. In the south-west, 67% of councils have already made cuts in staff; in the the south-east, 57%; and so on down to Yorkshire and Humberside (37%). In some areas, councils are the largest employer, and across the UK they employ 2.2 million workers. Cuts in jobs mean cuts in services — at a time when the economic crisis means an increase in the need for housing benefit, council housing, debt advice...

Council tries to bully workers into silence

Members of Unison employed by Wirral council have been threatened with immediate suspension if they express their opposition to council cuts and job losses publicly. Councillor Steve Foulkes has said that their treatment of staff iss reasonable as: “The council couldn’t have council workers, who are paid by the tax payers, spending 8 or 9 hours a day politically campaigning against the council.” Teachers who have links with the local libraries and who encourage the children to use them have also been threatened with suspension if they publicly support the libraries. Wirral council is planning...

Barnet battles sheltered housing cuts

If there had been a national debate on the fate of sheltered housing for the elderly, the cuts that are happening around the country could never have gone ahead! Why? Because the vast majority of people want to retain sheltered housing and are appalled to learn that it is disappearing. Instead, we are fighting council by council to save sheltered housing, with barely a word about it in the national press. Cuts have gone through in some areas. In some places, notably Brighton and Hove, they have been fended off. In Barnet we are still battling. On Saturday 9 May, at short notice, we organised a...

This website uses cookies, you can find out more and set your preferences here.
By continuing to use this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.